Bruins conquer Fiesta Bowl, take all six matches

By Vytas Mazeika
Daily Bruin Senior Staff

And like that, “Poof!” ““ the competition was
done.

The UCLA softball team encountered very little resistance this
weekend, winning all six games at the Fiesta Bowl Tournament in
Phoenix by a combined score of 50-2.

The first three victories all came by way of the mercy rule,
capped off by senior Amanda Freed’s no-hitter in
Saturday’s 14-0 win against Texas ““ UCLA’s second
in as many weeks.

Can head coach Sue Enquist expect a no-hitter out of Freed or
sophomore Keira Goerl every week?

“It’s not a matter of what I expect; it’s just
a matter of both those players knowing how good they are,”
Enquist said. “I’m really proud of how Amanda and Keira
played.”

The No. 2 Bruins (10-0) overwhelmed opponents all weekend,
surrendering only 20 hits while striking out 41 batters.

Hitting-wise, extra base hits were scarce at times. The weather
conditions limited UCLA to six doubles and seven home runs. But the
Bruins still churned out 64 hits.

“It was pretty windy out this weekend, so there
weren’t going to be a whole lot of home runs. So it was good
to put the ball in play,” said junior Tairia Mims, who hit
her first home run of the season on Friday, but lost a couple to
the wind.

The win over Texas freshman Cat Osterman, a member of Team USA,
was exemplary. The Bruins took advantage of the left-hander’s
clear tendencies and roughed her up for eight runs on six hits in
less than two innings of work.

From the very beginning UCLA wanted to be aggressive at the
plate.

“That game we singled her to death,” said senior
Stacey Nuveman, who connected on her first three home runs of the
season in the tournament. “When from top to bottom your
offense is clicking, you don’t let a pitcher come up for
breath. There is no such thing as the bottom of our
lineup.”

No pitcher really had a chance to get comfortable as the top
four hitters in the lineup combined for 35 hits. Sophomore first
baseman Claire Sua then made sure to drive them home, finishing the
tournament with two home runs and leading the team with 10 RBI.

About the only thing the Bruins need to work on is their
defense. The team committed errors in its final four games,
including four in Sunday’s finale ““ a 4-0 win over
Southwest Texas State.

“It was ugly,” Enquist said. “Defensively we
were ugly at times, and there’s no excuse for it. We’re
too good of a club.”

How good? 50-2 good.